Symbology/Ambiguity
Ambiguity edit
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| This is not a pipe. |
The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe', I'd have been lying!
- The Treachery of Images
- painted by René Magritte in 1928-29
"The Treason of Images" may be less known but better suited to the original French "La trahison des images." How well to say matters as well as how well to understand. Ambiguity or uncertainty in language matters as well as quality of communication. The less known title, said above, the more suspected hence uncertain of its identity. Uncertainty is all over the world, especially, of language which in itself is a loose affair indeed. For example, any name of colors, say, "blue" is just simplistic, considering its innumerous shades. It is always uncertain how blue something blue is. So is how true something true is!